I am trying to set up a DVD with 3 videos. I want to make a menu that has a selectable button for each video, and only 1 window on the screen showing little clips from the videos. By default the preview window will show video #1, and video #1 will be the default video that is highlighted on the menu. I want to make it so when you push down and highlight video #2, the preview window shows preview for video #2....and the same for video #3. Is there a way to do this? Almost like changing the preview window object into a different 'rollover' type thing?

Yes there is.

You need to make 3 menus. One with each preview. Then, Link each botton to its own menu and set them to auto activate. On the menu that is playing the proper preview you link it to the actual time line so if they hit enter they get the time line. This is also how you can create advanced buttons that have more than just a color overlay for being hilighted. One note is that it will not be instant when you switch. some DVD players are faster than others but expect a second or two delay before the new menu fires up.

no i don't think it is possible.
DVD do not support buttons on video.
What you can do is to use the multiple angle feature that allow switching video with the angle button of the remote control. But all video must be same length.
On the other hand you can play your video into a menu, so thumbnail and buttons will be possible.
unfortunately, switching video will require to switch menus, and each video will start from the beginning each time button is pressed (unless you go into heavy programming).
Switching menus, especially with long video will not be seamless.
Usually , animated thumbnail contains a small loop of the chapter, not the full movie.

Josh's description is dead on. There might be another way but I'm not aware of it.

In the BluRay realm you'll have a lot more control over the menus, but it won't necessarily be easier to do.

Am I correct in assuming I can't have a pre-rendered preview clip playing ? From what I am reading the preview will only play the whole movie in the timeline its linked to? A bit confused. I want to render out a 10 second preview of each video to show in the preview window.

I would suggest doing a video, but you can also easily make a large video button pointed at the time line as well as the button they will use. This button can have as long or little of that time line as you want. You set the motion button duration and you can also set its loop point if you want.

I am not sure I follow what you mean. I am trying a new approach but am not sure if its possible. Here is a screen grab of the layout.

http://www.naqproductions.com/temp/dvd_menu_test.jpg

So there are three video names, and 3 preview spots for a 10 second specially made preview_clip for each one. Is there a way to have the preview clip for the corresponding name that is highlighted to play when the name is activated? Right now when you activate Five Minutes Flat, it lets you go down to 'Play' and 'Scene Selection'. There is no video linking happening yet. I'd like it to activate the preview only when you go down to the 'Play' option line on each. Right now its all on one menu, and I'd love to keep it that way. Is it possible? Or do I need the multiple timelines, menus etc?

The only way I can think of to have it play only when you goto the play Icon, is to still use a menu for each video.

The 3 menus would all be identical except that they would play a different video.

With Auto Click they would jump to the proper menu which would then have the specially made preview start playing. On that special menu the Play and Scene Selection would actually work for the current demo while the others would cause you to jump to another menu.

ahh gotcha. Thank you guys for your help and patience. I have redesigned around the issue. Thats the beauty of doing things like this...many ways to create something that still works great. You helped me to learn some of the limits of DVD making, so I know better how to design the rest of it :)

ahh gotcha. Thank you guys for your help and patience. I have redesigned around the issue. Thats the beauty of doing things like this...many ways to create something that still works great. You helped me to learn some of the limits of DVD making, so I know better how to design the rest of it :)

Well hopefully I have explained it correctly. You can do what you want and as far as the user will know. They will only be aware of one menu since they will look identical. They will just wonder about the small delay between buttons :-)

yea you explained it well. I decided I don't want the delay in there since it would get catastrophic on ADD time to cycle through the 3 more than once. I redesigned to make the whole DVD flow a bit better as a result, so no harm done ;)

yea you explained it well. I decided I don't want the delay in there since it would get catastrophic on ADD time to cycle through the 3 more than once. I redesigned to make the whole DVD flow a bit better as a result, so no harm done ;)

Care to share your methodology? I, for one, am always looking for different and possibly better ways to do things. I'm old so anything that saves me time means I get to do more before I die. (grin)

Well its more to do with the design not a work around for the DVD. The main menu is going to have a full screen preview blending the 3 previews into one, so on the sub-menu I was asking about in this post will no longer need to have video previews. The user will see the 3 previews on the main menu and then have 2 sub-menu options, and there is really no need to overkill the animated previews all over the place :)